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Clinics

Mediation Program and Viola J. Taliaferro Family and Children Mediation Clinic

The Law School’s mediation program is available to second- and third-year law students. It offers you hands-on mediation experience in a combined seven-credit course (domestic relations mediation) and clinical experience (the Viola J. Taliaferro Family and Children Mediation Clinic). In the clinic, you will mediate real-life disputes involving families with children in family law cases.

This is an interdisciplinary clinical program in which the director, Amy Applegate, and her students collaborate in research and training with faculty and students from IU's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. The collaboration is intended to improve the mediation process for families that mediate and to assist families in focusing on and reaching agreements that best meet their children's needs.

Participants in the clinic will be fully trained and registered domestic relations mediators in Indiana, with experience preparing for and mediating approximately five cases over the course of the semester. As a trained mediator, you will assist low-income families and provide help in reducing court dockets while gaining marketable legal skills. Most cases involve custody, parenting time, child support, and related divorce or paternity issues between parents or guardians.